We strive to make sports a positive experience for all our children recognising the range of abilities and skills of our pupils. All children are stretched and positively encouraged to be the best they can be. Many of our teachers play in sports teams and some have competed at a high national level previously. The spirit of competitiveness is very alive at Kennet Valley but equally sportsmanship is developed too. We have developed a very good reputation for sporting successes and performance in the tournaments we attend. As a small school this is something we are very proud of.
In 2017/18 we were awarded the School Games Silver award and improved it further in 2018/19 by achieving the GOLD award.
The School Games Mark is a Government led award scheme launched in
2012, facilitated by the Youth Sport Trust to reward schools for their commitment to the development of competition across their school and into the community, and we are delighted to have been recognised for our success.
Our sporting achievements this year include:
Finishing 4th in the county Rugby festival, which includes both large and small schools.
Winning the Handball Festival and the Rugby Small Schools’ Festival.
With all of our Year 4 – 6 children local inter-school
competitions this year, we are extremely proud of our pupils for their dedication to all aspects of school sport, including those young volunteers, leaders and officials who made our competitions possible.
As part of our application, we were asked to fulfill criteria in the areas of
participation, competition, workforce and clubs, and we are pleased that
the hard work of everyone at our school has been rewarded this year.
PE in School
“Real PE” is a well-researched teaching method that we embrace and this works on the whole child’s physical development through setting personal goals that in turn are transferrable to their specialist sports. It is both challenging and inclusive, encourages independence and self-belief. We have really seen a marked difference in the sporting ability of all our children through this approach and this is always evident at our sports days where the whole school’s long distance running is especially impressive.
Mrs Blackmore, who is our lead for PE, recognises that “Our children believe in themselves and are able to enter competitions believing they can win!” additionally she says, “We have a lot more children participating in a wide selection of sports at a very respectable level using this individual skill based approach.”
Evidence demonstrates that active children achieve more in and out of the classroom and so developing our pupils physical ability through PE and games is very important to us.
We walk to our village hall every Wednesday and spend the afternoon exploring a range of skills and training sessions.
Every year group runs for 8 minutes at the start of the session (rain or shine) and we have seen the excellent impact this has had on our school endurance and fitness. We have registered for the Mile A Day Scheme and will start this in September. This will be at 9.25 every morning and of course parents are welcome to join in!
A daily run in primary schools has been researched and proven to improve not only fitness but also levels of concentration, mood and classroom behaviour. Only torrential rain and other adverse weather conditions will stop our running session! We want to develop fitness and learning skills in all our pupils.
We have even made it into our local newspaper about how we use sport in various ways in and out of the classroom. We love to inspire our children!
The Sports Clubs we provide are:
- Netball
- Hockey
- Rugby
- Athletics
- Rounders
- Maypole Dancing
Our After-school Dragon club provide a wide-range of sporting activities including:
- Obstacle Courses
- Curling
- Dodge-ball
- French Cricket
- Skipping
- Swing-ball
- Dragon Boot Camp – Our head dragon is an excellent Sargent Major!
We also run a group during the school day called Busy Bees who take part in lot’s of fun activities that support and develop:
- Fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills
- Leadership skills
- Social skills
Next year we are planning to run the same clubs in addition to:
- Gardening
- Fencing (fingers crossed)
- Dance and movement
If any parents would like to run a club at lunch or after school; please contact the office, Mrs McQue or Mrs Blackmore.
Every year we always look forward to our Sports festivals and the children love to push themselves.
This year all year 4, 5 & 6 children have taken part in one or more sports festivals!
Year 5/6 Festivals & Tournaments:
- High-five netball
- Hockey
- Rugby
- Quad Kids
- Cricket
- Dodgeball
Year 3/4 Festivals & Tournaments:
- Handball
- Athletics
- Cricket
We have an annual programme to enable our year 2 and 3 groups to have swimming lessons in our local pool.
Our year 6 children have had the fantastic opportunity to be trained as Sports Leaders for our small schools festivals. It has been excellent to see them take on a responsible role and we look forward to carrying this on next year.
All of the year 6 children have been sports leaders within school and have designed and improved their own activities for the younger children. This has involved leading and coaching the younger children to take part in various activities and skills including tennis, football, multi-sports, skipping, athletics, dodge-ball and parachute games.
Our 2018/19 Sports Festivals Include:
Cluster:
- High Five Netball – Year 5&6 – Wednesday 28th November
- Hockey – Year 5&6 – Tuesday 26th February
- Tag Rugby – Year 5&6 – March (Final date to be confirmed)
- Quadkids – Year 5&6 – Friday 7th June
- Orienteering – Year 4&5 – Monday 10th June
Small Schools:
- Dodgeball – Year 5&6 -Friday 19th October
- Handball – Year 3/4 (With Yr6 Leaders) – Thursday 14th February
- Tag Rugby – Year 5&6 – Friday 29th March
- Cricket – Year 3/4 (With Yr6 Leaders) – Friday 17th May
- Rounders – Year 5&6 – Friday 28th June